Its my first RWD car and drifting seems to be a lot of fun. Everyone knows its not the quickest way around a corner but id still like to learn. Any tips...

89rx7 turbo
92 eclipse turbo (shout out to Mach V members)

 

Check out these sites:

http://streetracing.tiora.net/japan/drift/drift1.htm

http://velocity.isfaster.com/drift/drift.htm

http://www.driftsession.com/technique.htm

 

aight.....you hit my spot in the sun......drifting is fun as hell!!!!!
depending on the turn and how fast you're goin its gonna be different...... heres what i usually do and it works good......
shift into 2nd about 5500rpm...... put your foot on the clutch and gently turn towards the outside of the turn.....while your doin this....rev the car up and dump the clutch, as you dump it jerk the wheel towards the inside of the turn and immediatly after thet keep it almost straight abut a little towards the inside......you're going to want to steer with the throttle not the wheel, cause if you steer with just the wheel youll spin...use the wheel sparingly for correction in the throttle steer and you should have that bitch cocked nice and sideways.......i have it now so i am almost totally side ways in a turn.........but practice in a nice open smooth parking lot untill you can do it without thining and you know how to spin the car without hitting anything.... its just like riding a bike...... good luck

 

do whatever you can to break the rear tires loose(clutch kick usualy works for me.) or unsettle the rear end( stab brakes, stutter step, or lift throttle) then counter steer and modulate the throttle and the gas pedal. practice in a parking lot so as not to wreck your car.

 

hey pretty decent pointers. i just practiced in my boys Camaro Z28 in a grocey lot. Keep spinning out.. I get the "Use the Throttle to steer thing now" but i still think that the Z is too heavy. Can't wait to get the 7 start so i can try in a much lighter car.... Thanks super.

 

goin out for another try guys. this time in a Mitsu starion. brb and let you know the details.

(damn american cars)

 

whaaaaatttt. i kinda got it. the mitsu worked alot better. what a rush. driving sidways at bout 20-25 mhp. lost it a few times but using the clutch half way and gas to steer worked out pretty well. talk about blind spots, maannnn this ***** off the chain. You get my DRIFT. cause I GOT IT hahahahahahahahahahaha...

ohh sorry its my first time alright

Thanks guys

 

well glad you enjoy the doriftu. ive been into it now for about 4 yrs. the RX-7 T2 makes a great platform for sliding. have fun, but BE SAFE!!

 

Plan A trip to Japan and I will show you drift first hand at the circuit and in the car. The afformentioned websites are chocked full of misinformation given to you by people who have very little experience.

I see lots of pictures of cars parked and scantily clad chicks that are at the show type events but nothing on the track. Try Slide Squad at least he has actally done it.
I think most of these guys want you to think they are some super gaijiin that is doing it all in Japan when in fact they rarely are at the track.

I will not try to explain how to do it as its a feeling and everyone is different, the idea is to create your own style. You have the very basic Idea down it just takes time and practice to improve on it.

 

clutch kick! I think its the easist to do. Side braking sucks, youll learn alot more clutch kicking.
While your driving say 2nd gear 4,000 ish RPMs. "kick" the clutch and use the accel and the wheel to control your slide. Its harder if you dont have LSD. Rain is a deffinate plus. I only slide in the rain cuz my tires are expensive. Dirt is also very fun.
Hope you get the hang of it. Just have fun.

 

yeah what he said

 

speederx7@yahoo.com: Clutch kick huh? Come on out to Bremertom autoX this Saturday and/or Sunday. AutoX both days. Let's see what you got. I don't want to be the only bonehead out there not going for the cleanest lines and fastest times. Plus I missed you that last time you were out there.

jerk_racer@hotmail.com

 

... it rained today...

 

Move north... I get 4-5 months of practice on the snow and ice.

 

Practicing on loose surfaces has it's good points. Lower speeds so less chance of a nasty accident. Less wear and tear on the car. Tires and clutch especially. Good practice for getting the feel of a car sliding. Also good for getting the feel of the cars weight. Less noise which attracts less attention. Screeching tires gets people that want to save the world calling the cops. Less noise equals safety to them. somebody that can control a car when it's "out of control" is safer in the real world (can you say black ice on a bridge in winter?) Go figure. But loose conditions are bad on the other hand. Using the same techniques on the dry asphalt will go funny on you. Things happen quicker when sliding on grippy pavement. If a tire catches, it catches big time compared to the wet. This is why I stay away from clutch kicking. For me this usually resulting in a spin. I try to let the back come out by trail braking with a touch of the left foot on the brake to shift the weight off the back. The gas foot stays on, level or off the gas depending how much the turn asks for. Feeding the gas a bit and smoothly helps once the back it loose. Not too much gas now. Just trust the car. It'll only do what you make it do. If it bites you, rethink what you did and try something a little bit different. Practice, practice, practice! I practice at autoX events as much as possible. AutoX is great as long as you don't keep spinning out and taking out cones. I see some guys losing it consistently learning how to slide around and they are frowned upon by the usuals. Making people run to pick up comes all the time is a good way to **** them off. Don't burn bridges at the local track events because these people will repsect you if you run clean even if you don't nearly have the same style as them. They might not agree with your style, but they can't argue with control. The people that come just to watch love it. It doesn't hurt to talk with the other drivers during downtime. Like Ranzo said, find your own style. Just as some people like some cars to drift with compared to others. Some like different suspension setups on the same car as others. Find your happy place and go with it. Easy to learn (fundamental basics), difficult to master (making it look easy) type of thing. There is no end to the learning. That's good for the obsesses folks out there.
Drifting is new here and there are many that are aware of it but are apprehensive of it due to the sources of info about it (stupor street, cough cough). Just get out there and do it. Humility will teach you, attitude will hinder you. Don't tell people you're trying to drift. They'll expect Option video quality drifts from you them. Just let them enjoy the show. Have fun. Tires are disposible after all. They'll make more of them.

For those that care to know, I suck. But undeterred I keep doing it. See y'all on the tracks. I don't apologize for the long post. If you wanted to save time you wouldn't be here.

jerk_racer@hotmail.com

 

seeing that I haven't found a parking lot good enough to practice in, I'm stuck to rain... and it doesn't look like there's much more left. I'm more of a power over/trail braking type of person. Thats the way it usually happens at autocrosses anyway. I seem to have an easier time controlling those techniques more than others. But those can get you into a lot of trouble...

 

Go with what you got. My exhaust is too loud for me to mess around in areas within earshot of populated area these days. I once got the go ahead from security that I could play around in the parking lot. Just big enough to do donuts thoug. They thought I was crazy nad told me it was OK as long as I didn't hit anything. The guard asked me why I wanted to. I just said the truth and told him because it was fun. Simple-minded: yes, but it gave me the green light for fun. My car is way too loud to do that these days. The 16 gauge midpipe needs to give way to a MagnaFlow muffler. Just keep a low profile out there. The rainy season out here in the Puget sound area is going away.

 

I've just started too! Its the biggest rush to get in a big slide and control it and come out fine! The clutch-kick is the easiest so far for me, i go and speed up in third to about 50-40 then heal toe down to 2nd and hover around 35-40, and go around a corner on the inside, and right at the apex, kick the clutch, and hit the throttle, and make make steering adjustments. I think i don't control it enough with the throttle though, but I'm getting better each time I go out.


Said best by a master drifter, get comfortable with loosing traction, and getting the back end out. Also, the most important part on the car is the L.S.D.

 

If I kicked the clutch with my car, I'd be doing 360's off in the woods somewhere. Revs=boost=donuts

I like to come into the corner a bit hot, and make an exaggerated dive toward the apex, while abruptly applying some lift-throttle. Once it steps out, I countersteer a bit and get back in the gas a bit to keep it where I want it.

Edit- I don't do it often, I'm not a big fan of hitting immovable objects

 

You don't need RWD to drift.... some FWDs are extremely tail-happy (cough ahem ZX2) and cornering hard basically means trying to keep the back end behind you.

I found, personally, that it's easiest to start a drift by downshifting without rev-matching and releasing the clutch jst as you turn in. The drivetrain shock breaks the tires loose. Then you hold it with the throttle. That's not easy with low power (my car really sucks for power... ) and I end up having to stab the clutch a few times towards the end of the drift to keep the tires from grabbing and sending me spinning the other way.

I'm VERY new at drifting a RWD (my past experience is with 4WD, which drifts almost by instinct) and the hard part, I'm finding, is maintaining the right amount of traction. It seems best when the tires are just ready to grab - too little traction and the car wants to spin, but you don't want the tires to grab either.

I also do it only in the rain.... for reasons mentioned above And certainly when there is nobody around, and when there are no curbs or ditches on the side of the road!

 

I wouldn't shift to 2nd gear and put the clutch in to drift.. I If you're at a corner.... (at a red light, or something ) keep it in 1st rev it up to like 3-4k let out the clutch .. and go into the corner hard.. .Be sure you can CONTROL the dift, or it really isn't a dift. Now... only time I would use 2nd gear in a dift is if I'm coming up at a corner, ... then i'll just WOT

Rain... is better to drift in than anything you'd imagine. very fun!

 

I need to find a kickass rotary loving girl drifter around my area!!

 

ok drifting is fun depending on what style you use. i prefer a four wheel drift. where i slide all four tires first instead of the just the rear first. note that four wheel drifting occurs in high speeds and just controling the momentum of the 7. if your car is basically stock in the suspension dept, the i suggest u practice slow speeds in the rain. everyone here can give you pointers on that. when you do upgrade your sus. then tuning it to where you feel most control in a slide. the better you get, the faster and easier the turns will get.

 

clutch kicking....
I would never do that to my poor car. Learn to trail brake. And then feint drift. Much better for your car, and much better for your technique, and hence, better for you!

Steve

P.S. If you make a regular habit of this, be prepared for the costs to start piling up while you're learning. You're going to go through tires and alignments pretty fast. But it sure is fun!

 

Clutch kick is a good way to start to "feel" how your car has to respond, but I have spun out 3 times (no damage luckily).

I like drifting and all, but I don't care about it...where I live it is impractical, here the fastest line is straight through the apex of the corner, the only time drifting is actually practical here is during the SCCA Ice Racing, then it is all about drifting at 65-70 MPH around the track. But ice racing and paved racing is so much different, Ice racing makes drifting look like a childs play thing. It is so easy it isn't even funny.

But paved drifting is different, very difficult to perform properly without proper instruction and/or experience on a skid pad.

However, once you know the basics of drifting, it helps out a lot in real situations. I hit black ice with my winter beater a few times this year, and all I did was calmly drift to safety (without even leaving my lane).

It is a driving skill worth having, but it isn't usefull in a lot of the applications and areas I drive in.